1. Limited Copyright Waiver
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains computer code listings and command formats to which the claim of copyright protection is made. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any person of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but reserves all other rights whatsoever.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing networks, and more particularly to the load balancing of distributed processing units based on performance metrics.
3. Description of Related Art
It is often advantageous to distribute data processing tasks among a multiplicity of data processing units in a data processing network. The availability of more than one data processing unit provides redundancy for protection against processor failure. Data processing units can be added if and when needed to accommodate future demand. Individual data processing units can be replaced or upgraded with minimal disruption to ongoing data processing operations.
In a network providing distributed data processing, it is desirable to monitor distributed system performance. The performance of particular data processing units can be taken into consideration when configuring the network. Distributed performance can also be monitored to detect failures and system overload conditions. It is desired to reduce system overload conditions without the cost of additional data processing units.